OK, what do y'all think of all the new stuff? 13" Retina MBP? iPad mini? New iMacs? Mac min?

I think the new Fusion drive sounds great. And it's time for me to replace my antique G5. Since my MBP (often used with an external display) will continue to be my main machine, the G5 replacement will be back-up & for media. I've been thinking "Mac mini" for some time, just waiting for the upgrade, and will probably go that route.

Indeed, the Fusion Drive does seem to be a great idea, especially since I've been using that idea for over a year now. It seems that OWC has been sherlocked on the hardware side of things with this idea. The way I did it was to install the OWC Optibay Drive holding a 7200RPM 1TB HD, and installed a 128 SSD. On the SSD, I kept my OS, and on the HD I kept my files and resources. Thus, I essentially divorced the User's file from the SSD, and redirected the OS to find the User file on the HD in the Advanced Users Preference Window. So, it's a great idea on their part to reduce the overall cost, yet increase the efficiency of their products.

Overall, I was elated to see some forward momentum. The past couple of Keynotes have lacked excitement and appeal. The new iMac—what a beauty!

James - I've thought about going with the Optibay to extend the life of my late 2008 unibody. I could probably get at least another year out of it that way and get more for it when I sell it. I think my husband should definitely do it with his much younger 13" MBP.

We love OWC. We've been buying from them from their beginning. Great company, great stuff, and good videos to coach even a semi-geek (not a full-fledged geek) female through the installation process.

Why on earth did the Apple stock drop so much yesterday? Were folks out there expecting them to create a machine that would levitate?

Why on earth did the Apple stock drop so much yesterday? Were folks out there expecting them to create a machine that would levitate?

The stock dropped [full disclosure: I own Apple stock] yesterday due to the price of the iPad mini. Certainly, no one expected the iPad mini to be priced at $199, but there was hope that it would be $249 or more likely $299. Although it's only a $30 difference, there's a huge psychological difference about $299 vs. $329. If Apple had priced the iPad mini $299 or lower, they could have nearly obliterated the low-end tablet market. But I imagine that a lot of people who were debating between the lower-priced devices (such as the Kindle Fire or Nexus 7) but waiting to see where the iPad mini would be priced, had their decisions made for them yesterday.

No doubt, with Christmas around the corner, the iPad mini will sell like gangbusters regardless, but a lot of people were hoping they'd be more aggressive when it came to pricing. Who knows what strategies circulate through the Apple halls in Cupertino though. Perhaps, they plan to drop it to $299 right after Christmas. However, I wouldn't hold my breath.

Rick - We've got Apple stock, too. Wish we'd bought more when it was at $66!

I think you're right about expectations, but how could the iPad mini be priced the same, or lower, than an iPod Touch? Either the iPod had to drop or the iPad mini come in a little higher. I think you're right, though, that it's gonna sell. The stock is up a bit today.

The stock market always makes me think of a toddler that stuffs himself full of sweets, races around on a sugar high, and then has a meltdown when his blood sugar drops. Only I think the toddler might be a bit more predictable.

Well, considering I just bought the top 13" MacBook Air, I was a little disappointed to see the 13" rMBP at a similar price point! Actually, with the 512 flash drive it would be about $400 more. I thought its release would be delayed more than it was. Oh well…

As far as the mini…I don't know. I too thought the price point should have been at $299 for the base model. But, I've been recently hearing from die-hard Android users that the iPad is so much more stable and a better user experience than any of their tablets. They're selling this as a full iPad (2 - i.e. no Retina) in a smaller case. I'll stick with my iPad 3; I don't think I would be able to type that well on the smaller size, and I take a decent amount of notes as it stands.

I think you're right about expectations, but how could the iPad mini be priced the same, or lower, than an iPod Touch? Either the iPod had to drop or the iPad mini come in a little higher.

Not necessarily. Miniaturization usually costs more. Keep in mind that iPhone costs are subsidized by the carriers. Apple is not selling a contract free iPhone 5 yet (I'm certain they will eventually), but I checked and a contract-free iPhone 4S costs $549. That makes me wonder what kind of actual margins are on the iPod touch.

I love the Fusion drive concept. Having files on flash makes such a performance improvement.
I was waiting to buy in new iMac for the speed bump, and disappointed I'll also have to buy an external optical drive. Yuck.

Well, I took the plunge and ordered a Mac mini w/Fusion Drive to replace my antique G5 (early 2005). I did get the external optical figuring that when my husband replaces his iMac down the road, and we replace our laptops, also down the road, that having a single optical drive would be enough for the household. It won't be here until Nov 9-15.

Guess I'll have to use a regular space heater this winter instead of the G5. I really do expect our power bill to go down - the G5 required a pretty hefty UPS.

I received a new Mac Mini today. I am very anxious to get home and put it to work. I purchased the middle Mini with the 2.3 Quad Core processor with the stock HD and have ordered the 16GB memory upgrade from Crucial.com. I may upgrade the drive of the Mini or add a SSD and keep the original drive at some point in the future. Time will tell on that.

I have been using an 11" Air for the last year and really like it but am beginning to feel pretty constrained with the storage and upgrade limitations. I know there are upgrades for the SSD but I didn't think half the price of a new Mini was worth upgrading the SSD. I'll keep the Air and relegate it to secondary, portable computer use. It gets used every Sunday at church in my Sunday School class. I play videos and use it to show Accordance modules and other graphics from the Air.

This is my second Mini. The first one I bought was the first Intel generation and it is still going strong as a file server and streaming Netflix, Hulu, etc. to my HDTV.

Greg - Let us know how it goes with the new mini. My G5 is so old that it is being used as a backup for the MBP (late 2008 unibody) and to run EyeTV - great gadget and software - and not much else. Its drives are full of video recorded off TV or DVDs we own (re-encoded so that I can put them on the iPad for walking the treadmill).

With the new mini, I'm hoping to use it as I would any desktop. I expect it to be speedy with the quad core plus Fusion. I should be not seeing that colorful little beach ball like I do on the G5 whenever I ask it to do more than one thing at a time.

How old is your original mini? Retasking it to serve the TV is a great way to get more use out of it. EyeTV now has a device that enables HD recording onto a computer.

The Airs have a lot of appeal because they are so very portable. The lower price point is also attractive. My MBP goes to church almost every Sunday for Sunday School also. I use it without an external monitor for hours each day, much of that time for Accordance, and really need the larger screen size. I'm wondering if I could get by with a 13" machine, but I'm leaning toward sticking with a 15" next time around. That's not a decision I have to make right away, so I'm going to wait and see. It's the cost of a 15" with adequate storage that makes me keep thinking about going with a smaller machine.

So far, I really like it but I haven't been able to use it much because I am having issues with the Migration Assistant. I tried twice to transfer from the AIr to the Mini and it got 'stuck' both times. After doing some research, it appears that is not unusual for a MacBook Air and Wifi with Migration Assistant. So I am now making a backup on an external HD of the Air with SuperDuper and plan to use that for the Migration Assistant. My external HD is USB3 so it will be interesting to see how much difference that makes when I get it hooked up to the Mini. In my limited usage, I think you will be QUITE HAPPY with the Mini. I did notice a huge difference in video levels on my external monitor from those put out by the Air. I was a little concerned at first. but after calibrating the monitor a few times and fiddling with my monitor, I got it looking pretty good. The colors are much richer and I more satisfied with the picture on my 24" Acer monitor. The Air display looks pretty weak by comparison. I can't say that I have seen a huge difference in speed of copying or program launching times from that which I experienced on the Air SSD, but that is just a subjective feel. I did put the 16GB memory in the Mini and I would highly recommend doing that. Crucial.com has the 16GB upgrade for $82. I have ordered and used with great success quite a few of their products over the years. The wizard they have walks one through the process of finding the exact memory or SSD for a specific computer.

I believe my old Mini is about 7 years old. It is the 1.66Ghz Intel model with a whopping 100GB HD. I upgraded the memory to 2GB (the max). For several years, it was my desktop computer. We don't use it a ton to stream video but it works quite well for that. I highly recommend Air Mouse as an aid in doing that. One can use an iPad or iPod or iPhone as mouse from the comfort of your chair. There are quite a few built-in functions in Air Mouse.

Thanks for the suggestions - I wanted to upgrade the memory anyway. It only comes with 4G, and I've got twice that in my 2008 unibody. The memory price at Crucial was great.

I'm wondering about Migration Assistant in my situation. It would be firewire 400 to firewire 800 (we have the cable), but I think the Leopard to Mountain Lion may be a problem - not sure if those big cats get along together. I'll give it a go and see what happens. If I have to, I can just transfer manually - not real enthusiastic about that prospect, but it's doable . I may use my larger monitor, also a 24" Acer, with the mini instead of the MBP, and use the 20" Dell for that.

Well, the move to the Mini has been less than stellar and very challenging. I tried to get Migration Assistant to work and never could get it to cooperate despite trying 2 or 3 methods. So, I installed everything the old way. Then I had issues with random slowdowns; to the point where it was nearly unusable. In fact, I had determined to send it back. As a last resort, I reinstalled the memory that came in the Mini and viola everything seemed much better! After some investigation I realized it was probably due to not resetting the PRAM after installing the new memory. So, I put the 16gb back in the Mini, reset the PRAM and all seems to be just fine. In case anyone needs to do that, here are the instructions from the Apple Support website:

Shut down your Mac.

Locate the following keys on the keyboard: Command (⌘), Option, P, and R. You will need to hold these keys down simultaneously in step 4.

Turn on the computer.

Press and hold the Command-Option-P-R keys before the gray screen appears.

Hold the keys down until the computer restarts and you hear the startup sound for the second time.

Release the keys

I am now, once again, pleased with my new Mini and I am sure that you will be too, Julie.